Music Tech Fest Central Europe: #MTFCentral

Music Tech Fest Central Europe: #MTFCentral

#MTFCentral is the festival of music ideas: a weekend of musical discovery and experimentation, held at the incredible Cankarjev Dom and +MSUM, the Museum of Modern Art in the heart of Ljubljana from the 18th to the 21st of September.

Become part of new musical performances and try out cutting edge technologies. There will be opportunities to get involved in new inventions and experiments, jam onstage and hack at the 24hr Hack Camp.

Expect experiments from the likes of Graham Massey (808 State), Matt Black (Coldcut / Ninja Tune) and over 50 of the finest innovators in electronic music, sonic art and music technology research from across Europe.

We are interested in music for everyone: music that inspires us, enriches our lives and brings people together. Come and connect and collaborate with artists, innovators, and thinkers from around the world and help us celebrate and invent the future of music.

Each session is ticketed and arranged around a broad theme. Admission is free to each session, but tickets are strictly limited. More performances and demos are being added to the programme by the day. Ensure your place by registering at the #MTFCentral Eventbrite page.

Here’s the lineup for the weekend:

FRIDAY 18th Sept: THE SCIENCE OF MUSIC, THE MUSIC OF SCIENCE

4pm: The Science of Music
Experimentation is at the heart of music’s progress - not just in terms of what it can sound like, but also how it can be used. The scientists of music are producers, hackers, craftspeople, therapists, composers, teachers and industry innovators. From the hospital to the record store, and from wearable musical instruments to the reinvention of classical music - this session investigates new ways of thinking, alternative uses and new experiments in the science of music.

6pm: The Music of Science
Data becomes art. Physical processes and reactions create sound. Equations create rhythms. The worlds of physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology combine in the mind of the computer to create sonic artwork and musical experiences unlike any we have known before.

8pm: Strange Dreams
Music’s greatest power is on the subconscious mind. Through cinematic immersion, giant controllers and underground currents of molten rock, we explore the collapse of the imaginary barriers between artist and audience, performance and space, dream and reality.

2pm: The Creator’s Laboratory
A look into the experimental laboratory, where ingenious minds tinker with machines, experiment in basements and breathe life into found objects and affordable electronics. Discover new uses for 8-bit lo-fi technologies and join the quest for the highest fidelity experience of music the world has ever known.

4pm: Performance Cyborgs
The boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion. This session takes the intangible and ephemeral world of music and makes it physical: a tactile and gestural phenomenon. The body becomes the musical instrument and we manipulate sound in space like a malleable, three-dimensional object in the air.

6pm: Technology Mutants
We shape our tools, and they, in turn, shape us. We recycle machines and hybridise instruments, manipulate memory, interpret data and transform ourselves through musical expression. We are what we create.

8pm: GUNK: Geek Punk
Technology is not sterile. It’s messy, rough and ready. It’s about immediacy of expression. Get your hands dirty, pull something apart, make new noises, form a band. Geek punks, electro legends and music hackers join forces to tear up the stage. No future? No - this IS the future.

2pm: #MTFLaunchpad
Introducing the inventors of the future: children enter the world of music technology through coding and making; barriers to participation in music are removed with instruments accessible to people with disabilities; intuition is enhanced through collaboration and new musical possibilities.

4pm: #MusicBricks
8 new startups and over half a million on social reach after just 6 months: #MusicBricks is a toolkit of some of the best music technologies coming out of EU research centres that allow creators, developers and digital content makers easy access to core building blocks of music. At #MTFCentral we exclusively reveal the innovative prototypes from the first round of #MusicBricks incubation.

6pm: #MTFHacks
Your first chance to see the inventions and designs by creative developers using some great new technologies including #MusicBricks, a compendium of both physical and virtual interfaces and APIs, exclusively available at #MTFCentral. From new types of physical interfaces and performances to software projects and startups. Every completed hack will be demonstrated and the winners will be announced on stage.

8pm: #MTFSessions
World famous artists perform with emerging local artists, using new musical instruments and in entirely new collaborative contexts. It’s not just an experimental, improvisational session featuring some of the finest artists in the world of music technology - it’s also a jam session and a party.

10am - 4pm: Research Network meeting and academic symposium
A meeting of the #MTFResearch network - an international, interdisciplinary collection of scholars and researchers from academia and industry. The purpose of the network is to provide a context for new research, collaborative projects and shared knowledge. The symposium provides a context for reflection and discussion of the themes and ideas presented at the Music Tech Fest event and develops ideas around the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). This event takes place in the Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art, +MSUM.